
Author 



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Instruciot Literature Series — iVo. 221 



Sir Roger DeCoverley 
Papers 



By JOSEPH ADDISON 




f«HK^I„.H i«.s«4i^ «„ ) f"- ^- OWEN PUB. CO., aaiMSVILLE, N. Y. 
Published Jomtly By j „^^^ ^ IHcCREARV, - - CHICAGO, ILL. 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES 

Five-Cent Classics and Supplementary Readers 

A N especially fine series of little books containing material needed for Sup- 
•^ plementary Reading and Study. Classified and graded. Large type for 
lower grades. A supply of these books will greatly enrich your school work. 
MS^ This list is constantly being added to. If a substantial number of books are to bi- 
ordered, or if othei 'titles than those shown here are desired, send for latest list. 



FIRST YEAR 
Fables and Myths 

6 Fairy Stoiies of the Moon. — Afaguire 

27 ^sop's Fables— Part l—Reiter 

28 iEsop's Fables— Part ll—Reiter 

29 Indian Myths — Bush 
140 Nursery Tales-^7a>'/or 
1'.; S'lu Myths — Reiter 
\~--^ :-^jt,egena£,I—Reiter 
Natl'!, 

. Little Plant People— Part 1— Chase 

2 Little Plant People— Part 11— Chase 
30 Story of a Sunbeam— A/z7/e;- 

31 Kittj' Mittens and Her Friends — Chase 
History 

32 Patriotic Stories (Story of the Flag, 

Story of Washington, etc.) — Reiter 
Literature 
22" liliyme and Jingle Reader for Beginners 

SECOND YEAR 
Fables and Myths 

33 biories from Andersen — Taylor 

34 Stories from Grimm — Taylor 

36 Little Red Riding Hood— Reiter 

37 Jack and the Beanstalk — Reiter 

38 Adventures of a Brownie — Reiter 
1T6 Norse Legends, II — Reiter 
Nature 

3 Little Workers (Animal Stories)~Chase 

39 Lilde Wood Friends — Mayne 

40 W;;igs and Stings — Halijax 

41 Story of Wool — Mayne 

42 Bird Stories from the Poets— yo///^ 
History and Biography 

43 Story of the Mayflower — McCabe 
45 Boyhood of Washington — Reiter 

164 The Little Brown Baby and Other Babies 

165 Gemila, the Child of the Desert and 

Some of Her Sisters 

166 Louise on the Rhine and in Her New 

Koine. (Nos. 164, 16^, 166 are "Seven 
Little Sisters" by fane Andrews) 

204 Boyhood of Lincoiti.-ifi'zVt'r 

Literature 1,1 

1 = 2 Child's Garden of'X^rses—J^tevenson 

206 Picture Study Stories for Utile Children 
— Cransto7i 

220 Story of the Christ Child — Hushoiver 

THIRD YEAR 
Fables and Myths 

40 I'liss in Boots and Cinderella — Reiter 

47 Greek Myths — Klingensmith 
102 Tliumbelina and Dream Stories— ^^zV^-r 
146 Sleeping Beauty and Other Stories 
177 Legends of the Rhineland — McCabe 
Nature 

49 Buds, Stems and Fruits — Mayne 

51 Story of Flax— 7l/<7r«« 

52 Story of Glass — Hanson 

July, 1912 



of 



Little Waterdrt.p 



53 Adveutures 

— Mayne 
135 Little People of the Hills (Dry Air ami 

Dry Soil Plants)— (TAa^^ ' 
203 Little Plant People of the Waterways- 

Chase 
133 Aunt Martha's Corner Cupboard — Part 

T Story of Tea and the Teacup 

137 Aunt Martha's Corner Cupbcard — Part 

II. Story of Sugar, Cofl'ec ami Salt. 

138 Aunt Martha's Corner Cupboard— Part 

III. Story of Rice, Currants and Honey 
History and Biography 

4 Story of Washington — Reiter 
7 Stor}- of Longfellow — McCabe 
21 Storj' of the V'xX^v'wws— Powers 
44 Famous Early Americans (Smith, Slan- 
disli, Penu) — Bush 

54 Story of Columbus — McCabe 

55 Story of Whittier— 71/fCa^f 

57 Story of Louisa M. Alcott — Bush 

58 Story of Alice and Phoebe Ca.Ty—McFee 

59 Story of tlie Boston Tea Party —McCabe 
132 Story of Franklin— y'c; is 

60 C'.iiidreu of the Northland — Bush 

62 Children of the South Lands, I (Florida, 
Cuba, Puerto Rico) — McFce 

63 Children of the South Lands, II (Africa, 
Hawaii, The Philippines) — McFee 

64 Child I<ife in tlie Colonies— I (New 

Amsterdam) — Baker 

65 Child Life in the Colonies— II (^Pennsyl- 

vania) — Baker 
65 Child Life in the Colonies— III(Virgin- 

\:i.)— Baker 
53 Stories of the Revolution— I (Ethan 

Alien and the Green Mountain Boys) 

69 Stories of the Revolution— 11 (Around 

Philadelphia) — McCabe 

70 Stories of the Revolution — III (Marion, 

the Swamp Fox) — McCabe 

71 Selections from Hiawatha (For 3rd, 4tli 

and 5th Grades) 
167 Famous Artists, I — Landseer aiicl Boii- 

heur. 
Literature 
67 Story of Robinson Crusoe — Bush 

72 Bow-Wow and Mew-Mew — Ciaik 

233 Poems Worth Knowiug-Book 1-Primary 

FOURTH YEAR 
Nature 

75 Story of Coal — McKane 

75 Story of Wheat— //a/z/a;r 

77 Story of Cotton — Bro7t'n 

78 Stories of the Backwoods — Reiter 

134 Conquests of I-ittle Plant People— O/fliC 

136 Peej.s into Bird Nooks, I — McFee 

iSi Stories of the Stars— .l/cFc^ 

205 lives and No Fyes and the Three Giants 

Continued on ihii d cover 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES 



Sir Roger De Coverley Papers 



FROM "THE SPECTATOR" 



'By Joseph /Addison 



WITH BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION 



PUBLISHED JOINTLY BY ' . 

F. A. OWEN CO., Dansville, N. Y. 



HALL & MCCREARY, CHICAGO, ILL. 



Copyright, 1912, by F. A. Owen Publishing Co. 



.i:)4- . 



INTRODUCTION. 



Joseph Addison was born May 1, 1672, his father being a 
clergyman of some note. He was educated at Oxford where he 
remained for ten years, reading the classics and occasionally 
writing verses in English and Latin, which were then greatly 
admired. Attracting the attention of men in public life, he re- 
ceived for a short time a pension, and traveled abroad to fit him- 
self for some diplomatic position. His pension was discontinued 
on the death or King William and the accession of Queen Anne, 
but later he received, as a mark of appreciation of his literary 
talents, an office. From this time on he generally held some 
public appointment finally, becoming Secretary of State. 

His literary fame, however, rests chiefly on his contributions 
to the periodical publications, The Tatler, The Spectator, and The 
Guardian. With Sir Richard Steele he joined in the production 
of The Tatler, and later of The Spectator. Steele was the chief 
writer for the first and Addison for the second. 

The Spectator was published daily, and each number was invar- 
iably a complete essay, without any admixture of politics. The 
greater part of the light and humorous sketches are by Steele ; 
while Addison contributed most of the articles in which there is 
any grave reflection or elevated feeling. In the course of the 
work, several fictitious persons were introduced as friends of 
the supposed editor, partly for amusement, and partly for the 
purpose of quoting them on occasions where their opinions might 
be supposed appropriate. Thus a country gentleman was described 
under the name of Sir Roger de Coverley, to whom reference 
was made when matters connected with rural affairs were in 
question. Of these characters, Sir Roger was by far the most 
happily delineated.. The Spectator, extended to six hundred and 
thirty-five numbers. It is much superior to The Tatler and as a 
miscellany Qf polite literature, is thought unsurpassed by any 
other book. "All that regards the s;na//er mora/s and decencies 
of life, elegance or justness of taste, and the improvement of do- 
mestic society, is touched upon in this paper with the happiest 
combination of seriousness and ridicule: it is also entitled to the 
praise of hayi^ig corrected the existing style of writing and 
speaking on common topics, which was much vitiated by slang 
phraseology knd profane swearing." Tlie Spectator appesived 
every morning in the shape of a single leaf, and was received at 
the breakfast-tables of most persons of taste then living in the 
metropolis ; yet it is stated, that the greatest number sold in this 
shape did not exceed sixteen hundred and eighty. 

Addison married the Countess-dowager of Warwick in 1716, 
and died at Holland House, near London, in 1719. 

Dr. Johnson has said of him: "Whoever wishes to attain an 
English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not osten- 
tatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison. " 

The chapters in the following reprint are all by Addison, and 
relate to the habits, character, etc. , of Sir Roger. 



'P^rt t\ 'i0^li(\^ 



Sir Roger de Coverley 

I. SIR ROGER'S COUNTRY RESIDENCE AND FRIENDS 

Having often received an invitation from my friend Sir Roger 
de Coverley to pass away a month with him in the country, I last 
week accompanied him thither, and am settled with him for some 
time at his country-house, where I intend to form several of my 
ensuing speculations. Sir Roger, who is very well acquainted 
with my humor, lets me rise and go to bed when I please, dine 
at his own table or in my chamber as I think fit, sit still and 
say nothing without bidding me be merry. When the gentlemen 
of the county come to see him, he only shows me at a distance. 
As I have been walking in his fields, I have observed them 
stealing a sight of me over an hedge, and have heard the knight 
desiring them not to let me see them, for that I hated to be stared at. 

I am the more at ease in Sir Roger's family, because it consists 
of sober and staid persons ; for as the knight is the best master 
in the world, he seldom changes his servants ; and as he is be- 
loved by all about him, his servants never care for leaving him : 
by this means his domestics are all in years, and grown old with 
their master. You would take his valet-de-chambre for his brother, 
his butler is gray-headed, his groom is one of the gravest men 
that I have ever seen, and his coachman has the looks of a privy- 
councilor. You see the goodness of the master even in the old 
house-dog, and in a gray pad that is kept in the stable with great 
care and tenderness out of regard to his past services, though he 
has been useless for several years. 

I could not but observe with a great deal of pleasure the joy 
that appeared in the countenances of these ancient domestics 
upon my friend's arrival at his country seat. Some of them could 
not refrain from tears at the sight of their old master ; every one 



4 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

of them pressed forward to do something for him, and seemed 
discouraged if they were not employed. At the same time, the 
good old knight, with a mixture of the father and master of the 
family, tempered the inquiries after his own affairs with several 
kind questions relating to themselves. This humanity and good 
nature engages everybody to him, so that when he is pleasant^ up- 
on any of them, all his family are in good humor, and none so 
much as the person whom he diverts himself with ; on the con- 
trary, if he coughs, or betrays any infirmity of old age, it is easy 
for a stander-by to observe a secret concern in the looks of all his 
servants. 

My worthy friend has put me under the particular care of his 
butler, who is a very prudent man, and, as well as the rest of his 
fellow-servants, wonderfully desirous of pleasing me, because 
they have often heard their master talk of me as of his particular 
friend. 

My chief companion, when Sir Roger is diverting himself in 
the woods or the fields, is a very venerable man, who is ever 
with Sir Roger, and has lived at his house in the nature of a 
chaplain above thirty years. This gentleman is a person of good 
sense and some learning, of a very regular life and obliging con- 
versation. He heartily loves Sir Roger, and knows that he is 
very much in the old knight's esteem, so that he lives in the 
family rather as a relation than a dependant. 

I have observed in several of my papers, that my friend Sir 
4 Roger, amidst all his good qualities, is something of an humorist ; 
and that his virtues, as well as imperfections, are as it were 
tinged by a certain extravagance, which makes them particularly 
his and distinguishes them from those of other men. This cast 
of mind, as it is generally very innocent in itself, so it renders 
his conversation highly agreeable and more delightful than the 
same degree of sense and virtue would appear in their common 
and ordinary colors. As I was walking with him last night, he 
asked me how I liked the good man whom I have just now men- 
tioned ; and without staying for my answer, told me that he was 
afraid of being insulted with Latin and Greek at his own table ; 
for which reason he desired a particular friend of his at the uni- 
versity to find him out a clergyman rather of plain sense than 
much learning, of a good aspect, a clear voice, a sociable temper, 
and, if possible, a man that understood a little of backgammon. 
"My friend," says Sir Roger, "found me out this gentleman, 

I. Makes his joke upon. 



SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 5 

who, besides the endowments required of him, is, they tell me, 
a good scholar, though he does not show it. I have given him 
the parsonage of the parish ; and because I know his value, have 
settled upon him a good annuity for life. If he outlives me, he 
shall find that he was higher in my esteem than perhaps he 
thinks he is. He has now been with me thirty years ; and though 
he does not know I have taken notice of it, has never in all that 
time asked anything of me for himself, though he is every day 
soliciting me for something in behalf of one or other of my ten- 
ants, his parishioners. There has not been a lawsuit in the parish 
since he has lived among them ; if any dispute arises, they apply 
themselves to him for the decision ; if they do not acquiesce in 
his judgment, which I think never happened above once or twice 
at most, they appeal to me. At his first settling with me, I made 
him a present of all the good sermons which have been printed 
in English, and only begged of him, that every Sunday he would 
pronounce one of them in the pulpit. Accordingly, he has di- 
gested them into such a series that they follow one another 
naturally, and make a continued system of practical divinity." 

As Sir Roger was going on with his story, the gentleman we 
were talking of came up to us ; and upon the knight's asking him 
who preached tomorrow (for it was Saturday night) , told us, the 
Bishop of St. Asaph in the morning, and Dr. South in the after- 
noon. He then showed us his list of preachers for the whole 
year, where I saw with a great deal of pleasure Archbishop Til- 
lotson, Bishop Saunderson, Dr. Barrow, Dr. Calamy, with several 
living authors, who have published discourses of practical divin- 
ity i. I no sooner saw this venerable man in the pulpit, but I very 
much approved of my friend's insisting upon the qualifications 
of a good aspect and a clear voice ; for I was so charmed with the 
gracefulness of his figure and delivery, as well as with the dis- 
courses he pronounced, that I think I never passed anytime more 
to my satisfaction. A sermon repeated after this manner, is like 
the composition of a poet in the mouth of a graceful actor. 

I could heartily wish that more of our country clergy would 
follow this example, and instead of wasting their spirits in labo- 
rious compositions of their own, would endeavor after a handsome 
elocution, and all those other talents that are proper to enforce 
what has been penned by greater masters. This would not only 
be more easy to themselves, but more edifying to the people. 

1. Sermons were much published and read in Addison's day. AH of these 
were noted clergym.en ol that time. 



6 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

II. WILL WIMBLE, A GUEST 

As I was yesterday morning walking with Sir Roger before his 
house, a country fellow brought him a huge fish, which, he told 
him, Mr. William Wimble had caught that very morning; and 
that he presented it, with his service to him, and intended to 
come and dine with him. At the same time he delivered a letter, 
which my friend read to me as soon as the messenger left him. 

"Sir Roger — I desire you to accept of a jack, which is the best 
I have caught this season. I intend to come and stay with you a 
week, and see how the perch bite in the Black River. I observed 
with some concern, the last time I saw you upon the bowling- 
green, that your whip wanted a lash to it ; I will bring half a 
dozen with me that I twisted last week, which I hope will serve 
you all the time you are in the country. I have not been out of 
the saddle for six days last past, having been at Eton with Sir 
John's eldest son. He takes to his learning hugely. I am. Sir, 
your humble servant. Will Wimble. ' ' 

This extraordinary letter, and message that accompanied it, made 
me very curious to know the character and quality of the gentle- 
man who sent them, which I found to be as follows : — Will Wimble 
is younger brother to a baronet, and descended of the ancient 
family of the Wimbles. He is now between forty and fifty, but 
being bred to no business, and born to no estate, he generally 
lives with his elder brother as superintendent of his game. He 
hunts a pack of dogs better than any man in the country, and is 
very famous for finding out a hare. He is extremely well versed 
in all the little handicrafts of an idle man. He makes a May-fly 
to a miracle, and furnishes the whole country with angle-rods. 
As he is a good-natured officious fellow, and very much esteemed 
on account of his family, he is a welcome guest at every house, 
and keeps up a good correspondence among all the gentlemen 
about him. He carries a tuilp-root in his pocket from one to 
another, or exchanges a puppy between a couple of friends that 
live perhaps in the opposite sides of the county. Will is a par- 
ticular favorite of all the young heirs, whom he frequently obliges 
with a net that he has weaved, or a setting-dog that he has made 
himself. He now and then presents a pair of garters of his own 
knitting to their mothers or sisters, and raises a great deal of 
mirth among them, by inquiring as often as he meets them how 
they wear. These gentleman-like manufactures and obliging 
little humors make Will the darling of the country. 

Sir Roger was proceeding in the character of him, when we 
saw him make up to us with two or three hazel-twigs in his hand 



SIR R(3GER DE COVERLEY 7 

Ihat he had cut in Sir Roger's woods, as he came through them, 
in his way to the house. I was very much pleased to observe on 
one side the hearty and sincere welcome with which Sir Roger 
received him, and on the other, the secret joy which his guest 
discovered at sight of the good old knight. After the first salutes 
were over. Will desired Sir Roger to lend him one of his servants 
to carry a set of shuttlecocks he had with him in a little box to 
a lady that lived about a mile off, to whom it seems he had prom- 
ised such a present for above this half-year. Sir Roger's back 
was no sooner turned but honest Will began to tell me of a large 
cock-pheasant that he had sprung in one of the neighboring 
woods, with two or three other adventures of the same nature. 
Odd and uncommon characters are the game that I look for, and 
most delight in ; for which reason I was as much pleased with the 
novelty of the person that talked to me, as he could be for his 
life with the springing of a pheasant, and therefore listened to 
him with more than ordinary attention. 

In the midst of this discourse the bell rang to dinner, where the 
gentleman I have been speaking of had the pleasure of seeing the 
huge jack he had caught served up for the first dish in a most 
sumptuous manner. Upon our sitting down to it, he gave us a 
long account how he had hooked it, played with it, foiled it, and 
at length drew it out upon the bank, with several other particular- 
ities that lasted all the first course. A dish of wild-fowl that 
came afterward, furnished conversation for the rest of the dinner, 
which concluded with a late invention of Will's for improving 
the quail-pipe. ^ 

Upon withdrawing into my room after dinner, I was secretly 
touched with compassion toward the honest gentleman that had 
dined with us ; and could not but consider, with a great deal of 
concern, how so good a heart and such busy hands were wholly 
employed in trifles, that so much humanity should be so little 
beneficial to others, and so much industry so little advantageous 
to himself. The same temper of mind and application to affairs 
might have recommended him to the public esteem, and have 
raised his fortune in another station of life. What good to his 
country or himself might not a trader or merchant have done with 
such useful though ordinary qualifications ! 

Will Wimble's is the case of many a younger brother of a great 
family, who had rather see their children starve like gentlemen, 
than thrive in a trade or profession that is beneath their quality. 

I. A pipe for luring quails into a net. 



8 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

This humor fills several parts of Europe with pride and beggary. 
It is the happiness of a trading nation like ours that the younger 
sons, though incapable of any liberal art or profession, may be 
placed in such a way of life as may perhaps enable them to vie 
with the best of their family. Accordingly, we find several 
citizens that were launched into the world with narrow fortunes, 
rising by an honest industry to greater estates than those of their 
elder brothers. It is not improbable but Will was formerly tried 
at divinity, law, or physic ; and that finding his genius did not 
lie that way, his parents gave him up at length to his own in- 
ventions. But certainly, however improper he might have been 
for studies of a higher nature, he was perfectly well turned for 
the occupation of trade and commerce. 

III. THE COVERLEY GHOST 

>/ At a little distance from Sir Roger's house, among the ruins of 
an old abbey, there is a long walk of aged elms, which are shot 
up so very high, that when one passes under them, the rooks and 
crows that rest upon the top of them seem to be cawing in another 
region. I am very much delighted with this sort of noise, which 
I consider as a kind of natural prayer to that Being who supplies 
the wants of the whole creation, and who, in the beautiful lan- 
guage of the Psalms, f eedeth the young ravens that call upon him. 
I like this retirement the better, because of an ill report it lies 
under of being haunted ; for which reason (as I have been told in 
the family) no living creature ever walks in it besides the chap- 
lain. My good friend the butler desired me with a very grave 
face not to venture myself in it after sunset, for that one of the 
footmen had been almost frighted out of his wits by a spirit that 
appeared to him in the shape of a black horse without an head, 
to which he added, that about a month ago one of the maids com- 
ing home late that way with a pail of milk upon her head, heard 
such a rustling among the bushes that she let it fall. 

I was taking a walk in this place last night between the hours 
of nine and ten, and could not but fancy it one of the most proper 
scenes in the world for a ghost to appear in. The ruins of the 
abbey are scattered up and down on every side, and half covered 
with ivy and elder bushes, the harbors of several solitary birds, 
which seldom make their appearance till the dusk of the evening. 
The place was formerly a churchyard, and has still several marks 
in it of graves and burying-places. There is such an echo among 
the old ruins and vaults, that if you stamp but a little louder tahn 



SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 9 

ordinary, you hear tlie sound repeated. At the same time, the 
walk of elms, with the croaking of the ravens, which, from time 
to time, are heard from the tops of them, looks exceedingly sol- 
emn and venerable. These objects naturally raise seriousness 
and attention ; and when night heightens the awfulness of the 
place, and pours out her supernumerary horrors upon everything 
in it, I do not at all wonder that weak minds fill it with specters 
and apparitions. 

Mr. Locke, in his chapter of the Association of Ideas, has very 
curious remarks to show how by the prejudice of education one 
idea often introduces into the mind a whole set that bear nc re- 
semblance to one another in the nature of things. Among several 
examples of this kind, he produces the following instance: "The 
ideas of goblins and sprites have really no more to do with dark- 
ness than light ; yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often 
on the mind of a child, and raise them there together, possibly 
he shall never be able to separate them again so long as he lives, 
but darkness shall ever afterward bring with it those frightful 
ideas, and they shall be so joined that he can no more bear the 
one than the other." 

As I was walking in this solitude, where the dusk of the eve- 
ning conspired with so many other occasions of terror, I observed 
a cow grazing not far from me, which an imagination that is apt 
to startle might easily have construed into a black horse without 
a head ; and I dare say the poor footman lost his wits upon some 
such trivial occasion. 

My friend Sir Roger has often told me, with a great deal of 
mirth, that at his first coming to his estate he found three parts 
of his house altogether useless ; that the best room in it had the 
reputation of being haunted, and by that means was locked up ; 
that noises had been heard in his long gallery, so that he could 
not get a servant to enter it after eight o'clock at night; that the 
door of one of his chambers was nailed up, because there went 
a story in the family that a butler had formerly hanged himself 
in it; and that his mother, who lived to a great age, had shut up 
half the rooms in the house, in which either her husband, a son 
or daughter had died. The knight seeing his habitation reduced 
to so small a compass, and himself in a manner shut out of his 
own house, upon the death of his mother ordered all the apart- 
ments to be flung open, and exorcised by his chaplain, who lay 
in every room one after another, and by that means dissipated 
the fears which had so long reigned in the family. 



10 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

IV. A SUNDAY AT SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY' S 

I am always very well pleased with a country Sunday, and 
think, if keeping holy the seventh day were only a human insti- 
tution, it would be the best method that could have been thought 
of for the polishing and civilizing of mankind. It is certain the 
country people would soon degenerate into a kind of savages and 
barbarians, were there not such frequent returns of a stated time, 
in which the whole village meet together with their best faces, 
and in their cleanliest habits, to converse with one another upon 
different subjects, hear their duties explained to them, and join 
together in adoration of the Supreme Being. Sunday clears away 
the rust of the whole week, not only as it refreshes in their minds 
the notions of religion, but as it puts both the sexes upon appear- 
ing in their most agreeable forms, and exerting all such qualities 
as are apt to give them a figure in the eye of the village. A 
country fellow distinguishes himself as much in the churchyard 
as a citizen does upon the 'Change, the whole parish politics be- 
ing generally discussed in that place either after sermon or be- 
fore the bell rings. 

My friend Sir Roger being a good churchman, has beautified 
the inside of his church with several texts of his own choosing. 
He has likewise given a handsome pulpit-cloth, and railed in the 
communion table at his own expense. He has often told me, that 
at his coming to his estate he found his parishioners very irreg- 
ular; and that in order to make them kneel and join in the 
responses, he gave every one of them a hassock and a Common 
Prayer-Book, and at the same time employed an itinerant singing- 
master, who goes about the country for that purpose, to instruct 
them rightly in the tunes of the psalms ; upon which they now 
very much value themselves and, indeed, outdo most of the 
country churches that I have ever heard. 

As Sir Roger is landlord to the whole congregation, he keeps 
them in very good order, and will suffer nobody to sleep in it 
besides himself; for if by chance he has been surprised into a 
short nap at sermon, upon recovering out of it he stands up and 
looks about him, and if he sees anybody else nodding, either 
wakes them himself, or sends his servant to them. Several other 
of the old knight's particularities break out upon these occasions. 
Sometimes he will be lengthening out a verse in the singing 
psalms half a minute after the rest of the congregation have 
done with it ; sometimes, when he is pleased with the matter of 



SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 11 

his devotion, he pronounces Amen three or four times to the 
same prayer, and sometimes stands up when everybody else is 
upon their knees, to count the congregation, or see if any of his 
tenants are missing. 

I was yesterday very much surprised to hear my old friend, in 
the midst of the service, calling out to one John Matthews to 
mind what he was about, and not disturb the congregation. This 
John Matthews, it seems, is remarkable for being an idle fellow, 
and at that time was kicking his heels for his diversion. The 
authority of the knight, though exerted in that odd manner which 
accompanies him in all circumstances of life, has a very good 
effect upon the parish, who are not polite^ enough to see anything 
ridiculous in his behavior ; besides that, the general good sense 
and worthiness of his character make his friends observe these 
little singularities as foils that rather set off than blemish his 
good qualities. 

As soon as the sermon is finished, nobody presumes to stir till 
Sir Roger is gone out of the church. The knight walks down 
from his seat in the chancel- between a double row of his tenants, 
that stand bowing to him on each side ; and every now and then 
inquires how such an one's wife, or mother, or son, or father, 
does, whom he does not see at church; which is understood as a 
secret reprimand to the person that is absent. 

The chaplain has often told me, that upon a chatechising day, 
when Sir Roger has been pleased with a boy that answers well, 
he has ordered a Bible to be given him next day for his en- 
couragement ; and sometimes accompanies it with a flitch of bacon 
to his mother. Sir Roger has likewise added five pounds a year 
to the clerk's place ; and that he may encourage the young fellows 
to make themselves perfect in the church-service, has promised, 
upon the death of the present incumbent, who is very old, to 
bestow it according to merit. 

The fair understanding between Sir Roger and his chaplain, 
and their mutual concurrence in doing good, is the more remark- 
able, because the very next village is famous for the differences 
and contentions that rise between the parson and the squire, who 
live in a perpetual state of war. The parson is always preaching 
at the squire ; and the squire, to be revenged on the parson, 
never comes to church. The squire has made all his tenants 

I. Used to good society. 

3. The chancel is the central part of a church that is built in the shape of a 
cross. 



12 vSIR ROGER DE COYERLEY 

atheists and tithe-stealers ;' while the parson instructs them every 
Sunday in the dignity of his order, and insinuates to them, in 
almost every sermon, that he is a better man than his patron. In 
short, matters are come to such an extremity, that the squire has 
not said his prayers either in public or private this half-year ; 
and that the parson threatens him, if he does not mend his man- 
ners, to pray for him in the face of the whole congregation. 

Feuds of this nature, though too frequent in the country, are 
very fatal to the ordinary people ; who are so used to be dazzled 
with riches, that they pay as much deference to the understand- 
ing of a man of an estate as of a man of learning ; and are very 
hardly brought to regard any truth, how important soever it may 
be, that is preached to them, when they know there are several 
men of five hundred a year who do not believe it. 

V. ON WITCHCRAFT — THE COVERLEY WITCH 

There are some opinions in which a man should stand neuter, 
without engaging his assent to one side or the other. Such a 
hovering faith as this, which refuses to settle upon any determi- 
nation, is absolutely necessary in a mind that is careful to avoid 
errors and prepossessions. When the arguments press equally on 
both sides in matters that are indifferent to us, the safest method 
is to give up ourselves to neither. 

It is with this temper of mind that I consider the subject of 
Witchcraft. When I hear the relations that are made from all 
parts of the world, not only from Norway and Lapland, from the 
East and West Indies, but from every particular nation in Eu- 
rope, I cannot forbear thinking that there is such an intercourse 
and commerce with evil spirits, as that which we express by the 
name of witchcraft. But when I consider that the ignorant and 
credulous parts of the world abound most in these relations, and 
that the persons among us who are supposed to engage in such 
an infernal commerce are people of a weak understanding and 
crazed imagination, and at the same time reflect upon the many 
impostures and delusions of this nature that have been detected 
in all ages, I endeavor to suspend my belief till I hear more cer- 
tain accounts than any which have yet come to my knowledge. 
In short, when I consider the question, whether there are such 
persons in the world as those we call witches, my mind is divided 
between two opposite opinions ; or rather (to speak my thoughts 

I. Tithes were oue-tenth of the profits on laud or cattle formerly levied on 
the inhabitants of a parish for the support ol the church. 



SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY ' 13 

freely) I believe in general that there is, and has been, such a 
thing as witchcraft; but at the same time can give no credit to 
any particular instance of it. 

I am engaged in this speculation, by some occurrences that I 
met with yesterday, which I shall give my reader an account of 
at large. As I was walking with my friend Sir Roger by the side 
of one of his woods, an old woman applied herself to me for 
charity.. Her dress and figure put me in mind of the following 
description in Otway^ : 

"In a close lane, as I pursued my journey, 

I spied a wrinkled hag, with age grown double. 

Picking dry sticks, and mumbling to herself. 

Her eyes with scalding rheum were galled and red ; 

Cold palsy shook her head : her hands seemed withered ; 

A:id on her crooked shoulders had she wrapped 

The tattered remnants of an old striped hanging. 

Which served to keep her carcass from the cold; 

So there was nothing of a piece about her. 

Her lower weeds were all o'er coarsely patched 

With different-colored rags, black, red, white, yellow, 

And seemed to speak variety of wretchedness. ' ' ^ 

As I was musing on this description, and comparing it with the 
object before me, the knight told me that this very old woman 
had the reputation of a witch all over the country; that her lips 
were observed to be always in motion, and that there was not a 
switch about her house which her neighbors did not believe had 
carried her several hundreds of miles. If she chanced to stumble, 
they always found sticks or straws, that lay in the figure of a 
cross before her. If she made any mistake at church, and cried 
Amen in a wrong place, they never failed to conclude that she 
was saying her prayers backwards. There was not a maid in the 
parish that would take a pin of her, though she should offer a 
bag of money with it. She goes by the name of Moll White, and 
has made the country ring with several imaginary exploits which 
are palmed upon her. If the dairy-maid does not make her but- 
ter to come so soon as she would have it, Moll White is at the 
bottom of the churn. If a horse sweats in the stable, Moll White 
has been upon his back. If a hare makes an unexpected escape 
from the hounds, the huntsman curses Moll White. "Nay," says 
Sir Roger, "I have known the master of a pack, upon such an 
occasion, send one of his servants to see if Moll White had been 
out that morning." 

I. From Act. II. of The Orphan, a tragedy by Tlioinas Otway, a dramatist 
of the geueratiou preceding Addisou. 



14 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

This account raised my curiosity so far that I begged my friend 
Sir Roger to go with me into her hovel, which stood in a solitary 
corner under the side of the wood. Upon our first entering, Sir 
Roger winked to me, and pointed to something that stood behind 
the door, which, upon looking that way, I found to be an old 
broomstaff. At the same time he whispered me in the ear to 
take notice of a tabby-cat that sat in the chimney-corner, which, 
as the old knight told me, lay under as bad a report as Moll White 
herself ; for besides that Moll is said often to accompany her in 
the same shape, the cat is reported to have spoken twice or thrice 
in her life, and to have played several pranks above the capacity 
of an ordinary cat. 

I was secretly concerned to see human nature in so much 
wretchedness and disgrace, but at the same time could not for- 
bear smiling to hear Sir Roger, who is a little puzzled about the 
old woman, advising her, as a justice of peace, to avoid all com- 
munication with the devil, and never to hurt any of her neigh- 
bors' cattle. We concluded our visit with a bounty, which was 
very acceptable. 

In our return home. Sir Roger told me that old Moll had been 
often brought before him for making children spit pins, and giv- 
ing maids the nightmare ; and that the country people would be 
tossing her into a pond and trying experiments with her every 
day, if it was not for him and his chaplain. 

I have since found upon inquiry that Sir Roger was several 
times staggered with the reports that had been brought him con- 
cerning this old woman, and would frequently have bound her 
over to the county sessions, had not his chaplain with much ado 
persuaded him to the contrary. 

I have been the more particular in this account, because I hear 
there is scarce a village in England that has not a Moll White in 
it. When an old woman begins to dote, and grow chargeable to 
a parish, she is generally turned into a witch, and fills the whole 
country with extravagant fancies, imaginary distempers, and 
terrifying dreams. In the meantime, the poor wretch that is the 
innocent occasion of so many evils begins to be frighted at her- 
self, and sometimes confesses secret commerces and familiarities 
that her imagination forms in a delirious old age. This fre- 
quently cuts off charity from the greatest objects of compassion, 
and inspires people with a malevolence toward those poor 
decrepit parts of our species, in whom nature is defaced by in- 
firmity and dotage. 



SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 15 

VI. SIR ROGER AT THE ASSIZES 

A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own 
heart ; his next, to escape the censures of the world. If the last 
interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected ; but 
otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest 
mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself 
seconded by the applauses of the public. A man is more sure of 
his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own be- 
havior is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that 
know him. 

My worthy friend Sir Roger is one of those who is not only at 
peace within himself, but beloved and esteemed by all about him. 
He receives a suitable tribute for his universal benevolence to 
mankind in the returns of affection and good will which are 
paid him by every one that lives within his neighborhood. I 
lately met with two or three odd instances of that general respect 
which is shown to the good old knight. He would needs carry 
Will Wimble and myself with him to the county assizes. ^ As we 
were upon the road, Will Wimble joined a couple of plain men 
who rid before us, and conversed with them for some time, 
during which my friend Sir Roger acquainted me with their 
characters. 

"The first of them," says he, "that has a spaniel by his side, 
is a yeoman of about a hundred pounds a year, an honest man. 
He is just within the game act, - and qualified to kill a hare or a 
pheasant. He knocks down a dinner with his gun twice or thrice 
a week, and by that means lives much cheaper than those who 
have not so good an estate as himself. He would be a good 
neighbor, if he did not destroy so many partridges. In short, he 
is a very sensible man ; shoots flying ; and has been several times 
foreman of the petty jury. 

"The other that rides along with him is Tom Touchy, a fellow 
famous for taking the law of everybody. There is not one in the 
town where he lives that he has not sued at a quarter-sessions. 
The rogue had once the impudence to go to law with the widow. 
His head is full of costs, damages, and ejectments. He plagued 
a couple of honest gentlemen so long for a trespass in breaking 
one of his hedges, till he was forced to sell the ground it enclosed 
to defray the charges of the prosecution. His father left him four- 

1. The sitting of the county magistrate and higher judges on circuit. 

2. The Game Act, among many other provisions, stated what class of people 
■were entitled to hunt. 



16 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

score pounds a year, but he has cast and been cast^ so often, that 
he is not now worth thirty. I suppose he is going upon the old 
business of the willow tree." 

As Sir Roger was giving me this account of Tom Touchy, Will 
Wimble and his two companions stepped short till we came up to 
them. After having paid their respects to Sir Roger, Will told 
him that Mr. Touchy and he must appeal to him upon a dispute 
that arose between them. Will, it seems, had been giving his 
fellow-travelers an account of his angling one day in such a hole ; 
when Tom Touchy, instead of hearing out his story, told him that 
Mr. Such-an-one, if he pleased, might take the law of him for 
fishing in that part of the river. My friend Sir Roger heard 
them both, upon a round trot ; and after having paused some 
time, told them, with the air of a man who would not give his 
judgment rashly, that much might be said on both sides. They 
were neither of them dissatisfied with the knight's determina- 
tion, because neither of them found himself in the wrong by it ; 
upon which we made the best of our way to the assizes. 

The court was sat before Sir Roger came but notwithstanding 
all the justices had taken their places upon the bench, they made 
room for the old knight at the head of them ; who, for his repu- 
tation in the country, took occasion to whisper in the judge's- 
ear, that he was glad his lordship had met with so much good 
weather in his circuit. I was listening to the proceedings of the 
court with much attention, and infinitely pleased with that great 
appearance and solemnity which so properly accompanies such 
a public administration of our laws, when, after about an hour's 
sitting, I observed, to my great surprise, in the midst of a trial, 
that my friend Sir Roger was getting up to speak. I was in some 
pain for him, until I found he had acquitted himself of two 
or three sentences with a look of much business and great 
intrepidity. 

Upon his first rising the court was hushed, and a general 
whisper ran among the country people that Sir Roger was up. 
The speech he made was so little to the purpose that I shall not 
trouble my readers with an account of it ; and I believe was not 
so much designed by the knight himself to inform the court, as 
to give him a figure in my eye, and keep up his credit in the 
country. 

1 was highly delighted when the court rose to see the gentle- 

I. That is, with costs and damages. 

2 The judge presiding, who was on circuit. 



SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 17 

men of the country gathering about my old friend, and striving 
who should compliment him most ; at the same time that the or- 
dinary people gazed upon him at a distance, not a little aamiring 
his courage, that was not afraid to speak to the judge. 

In our return home we met with a very odd accident which I 
cannot forbear relating, because it shows how desirous all who 
know Sir Roger are of giving him marks of their esteem. When 
we arrived upon the verge of his estate, we stopped at a little 
inn to rest ourselves and our horses. The man of the house had, 
it seems, been formerly a servant in the knight's family ; and to 
do honor to his old master, had some time since, unknown to Sir 
Roger, put him up in a signpost before the door ; so that the 
knight's head had hung out upon the road about a week before 
he himself knew anything of the matter. As soon as Sir Roger 
was acquainted with it, finding that his servant's indiscretion 
proceeded wholly from affection and good-will, he only told him 
he had made him too high a compliment ; and when the fellow 
seemed to think that could hardly be, added, with a more decisive 
look, that it was too great an honor for any man under a duke ; 
but told him, at the same tim.e, that it might be altered with a 
very few touches, and that he himself would be at the charge of 
it. Accordingly, they got a painter by the knight's directions to 
add a pair of whiskers to the face, and, by a little aggravation of 
the features, to change it into the Saracen's Head. I should not 
have known this story had not the innkeeper, upon Sir Roger's 
alighting, told him, in my hearing, that his honor's head was 
brought back last night with the alterations that he had ordered 
be made in it. Upon this my friend, with his usual cheerfulness, 
related the particulars above mentioned, and ordered the head to 
be brought into the room. I could not forbear discovering greater 
expressions of mirth than ordinary upon the appearance of this 
monstrous face, under which, notwithstanding it was made to 
frown and stare in a most extraordinary manner, I could still dis- 
cover a distant resemblance of my old friend. Sir Roger, upon 
seeing me laugh, desired me to tell him truly if I thought it 
possible for people to know him in that disguise. I at first kept 
my usual silence ; but upon the knight's conjuring me to tell him 
whether it was not still more like himself that a Saracen, I com- 
posed my countenance in the best manner I could, and replied 
that "much might be said on both sides." 

These several adventures, with the knight's behavior in them, 
gave me as pleasant a day as ever I met with in any of my travels. 



18 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

VII. ON PARTY DIVISIONS 

My worthy friend Sir Roger, when we are talking of the malice 
of parties, ^ very frequently tells us an accident that happened to 
him when he was a school-boy, which was at the time when the 
feuds ran high between the Roundheads and Cavaliers. This 
worthy knight, being then but a stripling, had occasion to in- 
quire which was the way to St. Anne's Lane, upon which the 
person whom he spoke to, instead of answering his question, 
called him a young popish cur, and asked him who had made 
Anne a saint. The boy, being in some confusion, inquired of the 
next he met which was the way to Anne's Lane, but was called 
a prick-eared cur for his pains, and instead of being shown the 
way, was told that she had been a saint before he was born, and 
would be one after he was hanged. "Upon this," says Sir Rog- 
er, "I did not think fit to repeat the former question, but going 
into every lane of the neighborhood, asked what they called the 
name of that lane. " By which ingenious artifice he found out 
the place he inquired after, without giving offense to any party. 
Sir Roger generally closes this narrative with reflections on the 
mischief that parties do in the country, how they spoil good 
neighborhood, and make honest gentlemen hate one another ; 
besides that they manifestly tend to the prejudice of the land-tax, 
and the destruction of the game. 

There cannot a greater judgment befall a country than such a 
dreadful spirit of division as rends a government into two dis- 
tinct people, and makes them greater strangers and more averse 
to one another, than if they were actually two different nations. 
The effects of such a division are pernicious to the last degree, 
not only with regard to those advantages which they give the 
common enemy, but to those private evils which they produce in 
the heart of almost every particular person. This influence is 
very fatal both to men's morals and their understandings ; it sinks 
the virtue of a nation, and not only so, but destroys even com- 
mon-sense. 

A furious party spirit, when it rages in its full violence, exerts 
itself in civil war and bloodshed ; and when it is under its great- 
est restraints, naturally breaks out in falsehood, detraction, 
calumny, and a partial administration of justice. In a word, it 
fills a nation with spleen and rancor, and extinguishes all the 
seeds of good nature, compassion, and humanity. 

I do not know whether I have observed in any of my former 

I. Party politics ran high in Addison's time. 



SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 19 

papers that my friends Sir Roger de Coverley and Sir Andrew 
Freeport are of different principles, the lirst of them inclined to 
the landed, and the other to the moneyed interest. ^ This humor 
is so moderate in each of them, that it proceeds no further than 
to an agreeable raillery, which very often diverts the rest of the 
club. I find, however, that the knight is a much stronger Tory 
in the country than in town, which, as he has told me in my ear, 
is absolutely necessary for the keeping up his interest. ^ In all 
our journey from London to his house we did not so much as bait 
at a Whig inn ; or if by chance the coachman stopped at a wrong 
place, one of Sir Roger's servants would ride up to his master 
full speed, and whisper to him that the master of the house was 
against such an one in the last election. This often betrayed us 
into hard beds and bad cheer, for we were not so inquisitive 
about the inn as the innkeeper; and, provided our landlord's 
principles were sound, did not take any notice of the staleness 
of his provisions. This I found still the more inconvenient, be- 
cause the better the host was, the worse generally were his ac- 
commodations ; the fellow knowing very well that those who 
"were his friends would take up with coarse diet and an hard 
lodging. For these reasons, all the while I was upon the road I 
dreaded entering into a house of any one that Sir Roger had ap- 
plauded for an honest man. 

Since my stay at Sir Roger's in the country, I daily find more 
instances of this narrow party humor. Being upon the bowling- 
green at a neighboring market town the other day (for that is 
the place where the gentlemen of one side meet once a week) , 
I observed a stranger among them, of a better presence and gen- 
teeler behavior than ordinary ; but was much surprised, that not- 
withstanding he was a very fair better, nobody would take him 
lip. But upon inquiry I found that he was one who had given a 
disagreeable vote in a former parliament, for which reason there 
was not a man upon that bowling-green who would have so much 
correspondence with him as to win his money off him. 

Among other instances of this nature I must not omit one which 
concerns myself. Will Wimble was the other day relating several 
strange stories that he had picked up, nobody knows where, of 
a certain great man ; and upon my staring at him, as one that was 
surprised to hear such things in the country, which had never 
been so much as whispered in the town, Will stopped short in 

1. The landed interest was chiefly Tory, the moneyed, Whig. 

2. Position and reputation 



20 vSIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

the thread of his discourse, and after dinner asked my friend Sir 
Roger in his ear if he was sure that I was not a fanatic. 

It gives me a serious concern to see such a spirit of dissension 
in the country, not only as it destroys virtue and common sense, 
and renders us in a manner barbarians toward one another, but 
as it perpetuates our animosities, widens our breaches, and trans- 
mits our present passions and prejudices to our posterity. For 
my own part, I am sometimes afraid that I discover the seeds of 
a civil war in these our divisions, and therefore cannot but be- 
wail, as in their first principles, the miseries and calamities of 
our children. 

VIII. SIR ROGER AND THE GYPSIES 

As I was yesterday riding out in the fields with my friend Sir 
Roger, we saw at a little distance from us a troop of gypsies. 
Upon the first discovery of them, my friend was in some doubt 
whether he should not exert the justice of peace upon such a 
band of lawless vagrants; but not having his clerk with him, who 
is a necessary counselor on these occasions, and fearing that his 
poultry might fare the worse for it, he let the thought drop ; but, 
at the same time, gave me a particular account of the mischiefs 
they do in the country, in stealing people's goods, and spoiling^ 
their servants. "If a stray piece of linen hangs upon a hedge," 
says Sir Roger, "they are sure to have it; if a hog loses his way 
in the fields, it is ten to one but he becomes their prey ; our 
geese cannot live in peace for them ; if a man prosecutes them 
with severity, his hen-roost is sure to pay for it. They generally 
straggle into these parts about this time of the year, and set the 
heads of our servant-maids so agog for husbands, that we do not 
expect to have any business done as it should be whilst they are 
in the country. I have an honest dairy-maid who crosses their 
hands with a piece of silver every summer, and never fails being^ 
promised the handsomest young fellow in the parish for her 
pains. Your friend the butler has been fool enough to be se- 
duced by them ; and though he is sure to lose a knife, a fork, or 
a spoon, every time his fortune is told him, generally shuts him- 
self up in the pantry with an old gypsy for about half an hour 
once in a twelvemonth. Sweethearts are the things they live up- 
on, which they bestow very plentifully upon all those that apply 
themselves to them. You see now and then some handsome young- 
jades among them ; the sluts^ have very often white teeth and 
black eyes." 

I. Slut. — An untidy woman; a. slattern.— U^ebsier. 



SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 21 

Sir Roger, observing that I listened with great attention to his 
account of a people who were so entirely new to me, told me, 
that if I would they should tell us our fortunes. As I was very 
well pleased with the knight's proposal, we rid up and commu- 
nicated our hands to them. A Cassandra^ of the crew, after having 
examined my lines very diligently, told me some particulars 
which I do not think proper to relate. My friend Sir Roger 
alighted from his horse, and exposing his palm to two or three 
that stood by him, they crumpled it into all shapes, and diligently 
scanned every wrinkle that could be made in it, when one of 
them, who was older and more sunburnt than the rest, told him 
that he had a widow in his line of life. Upon which the knight 
cried: "Go, go, you are an idle baggage;" and at the same time 
smiled upon me. The gypsy, finding he was not displeased in 
the heart, told him, after a further inquiry into his hand, that his 
true love was constant, and that she should dream of him to- 
night. My old friend cried "Pish!" and bid her go on. The 
gypsy told him that he was a bachelor, but would not be so long; 
and that he was dearer to somebody than he thought. The knight 
still repeated, she was an idle baggage, and bid her go on. "Ah, 
master," says the gypsy, "that rougish leer of yours makes a 
pretty woman's heart ache ; you ha'n't got that simper about the 
mouth for nothing." The uncouth gibberish with which all this 
was uttered, like the darkness of an oracle, made us the more 
attentive to it. To be short, the knight left the money with her 
that he had crossed her hand with, and got up again on his horse. 

As we were riding away. Sir Roger told me that he knew sev- 
eral sensible people who believed these gypsies now and then 
foretold very strange things ; and for half an hour together ap- 
peared more jocund than ordinary. In the height of his good 
humor, meeting a common beggar upon the road, who was no 
conjurer, as he went to relieve him he found his pocket was 
picked — that being a kind of palmistry at which this race of ver- 
min are very dexterous. 

IX. SIR ROGER IN LONDON 

I was this morning surprised with a great knocking at the door, 
when my landlady's daughter came up to me and told me there 
was a man below desired to speak with me. Upon my asking 
her who it was, she told me it was a very grave elderly person, 

I. A prophetess, from Cassandra, (laughter of Priam, king of Troy, who re- 
ceived from the god Apollo the power of kuowin^; futurity. 



22 " SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

but that she did not know his name. I immediately went down 
to him, and found him to be the coachman of my worthy friend 
Sir Roger de Coverley. He told me that his master came to town 
last night, and would be glad to take a turn with me in Gray's 
Inn walks. As I was wondering in myself what had brought Sir 
Roger to town, not having lately received any letter from him, 
he told me that his master was come up to get a sight of Prince 
Eugene, ^ and that he desired I would immediately meet him. 

I was not a little pleased with the curiosity of the old knight, 
though I did not much wonder at it, having heard him say more 
than once in private discourse, that he looked upon Prince 
Eugenio (for so the knight always calls him) to be a greater man 
than Scanderbeg. - 

I was no sooner come into Gray's Inn walks but I heard my 
friend upon the terrace hemming twice or thrice to himself with 
great vigor; for he loves to clear his pipes in good air (to make 
use of his own phrase), and is not a little pleased with any one 
who takes notice of the strength which he still exerts in his morn- 
ing hems. 

I was touched with a secret joy at the sight of the good old 
man, who, before he saw me, was engaged in conversation with 
a beggar-man that had, asked an alms of him. I could hear my 
friend chide him for not finding out some work ; but at the same 
time saw him put his hand in his pocket and give him sixpence. 

Our salutations were very hearty on both sides, consisting of 
many kind shakes of the hand, and several affectionate looks 
which we cast upon one another. After which the knight told 
me my good friend his chaplain was very well, and much at my 
service ; and that the Sunday before he had made a most incom- 
parable sermon out of Dr. Barrow. "I have left," says he, "all 
my affairs in his hands ; and being willing to lay an obligation 
upon him, have deposited with him thirty marks, to be dis- 
tributed among his poor parishioners," 

He then proceeded to acquaint me with the welfare of Will 
Wimble. Upon which he put his hand into his fob and presented 
me in his name with a tobacco-stopper, ^ telling me that Will had 



army 

shared with the duke of Marlborough the glory of his victories. He came to 

England in 1712 to urse the prosecution of the war against France, and to use 
his efforts to restore Marlborough to the queen's favor, 

2. Iskander Bey, the Turkish name for George Castriota, an Albanian pa. 
triot of the fifteenth century. 

3. A little wooden plug for pushing tobacco into a pipe. 



SIR ROGEP. DE COVERLEY 23 

been busy all the beginning of the winter in turning great quan- 
tities of them ; and that he made a present of one to every gentle- 
man in the country who has good principles and smokes. He 
added, that poor Will was at present under great tribulation ; for 
that Tom Touchy had taken the law of him for cutting some hazel 
sticks out of one of his hedges. 

Among other pieces of news which the knight brought from his 
country-seat, he informed me that Moll White was dead ; and that 
about a month after her death the wind was so very high that it 
blew down the end of one of his barns. "But for my own part," 
says Sir Roger, "I do not think that the old woman had any 
hand in it." 

He afterward fell into an account of the diversions which had 
passed in his house during the holidays ; for Sir Roger, after the 
laudable custom of his ancestors, always keeps open house at 
Christmas. I learned from him that he had killed eight fat hogs 
for this season ; that he had dealt about his chines very liberally 
among his neighbors ; and that in particular he had sent a string 
of hogs' puddings, with a pack of cards, to every poor family in 
the parish. "I have often thought," says Sir Roger, "it happens 
very well that Christmas should fall out in the middle of winter. 
It is the most dead, uncomfortable time of the year, when the 
poor people would suffer very much from their poverty and cold, 
if they had not good cheer, warm fires, and Christmas gambols to 
support them. I love to rejoice their poor hearts at this season, 
and to see the whole village merry in my great hall. I allow a 
double quantity of malt to my small beer, and set it a-running 
for twelve days to every one that calls for it. I have always a 
piece of cold beef and a mince pie on the table, and am wonder- 
fully pleased to see my tenants pass away a whole evening in 
playing their innocent tricks, and smutting one another. Our 
friend Will Wimble is as merry as any of them, and shows a 
thousand roguish tricks upon these occasions." 

I was very much delighted with the reflection of my old friend, 
which carried so much goodness in it. He then launched out in- 
to the praise of the late Act of Parliament^ for securing the Church 
of England, and told me, with great satisfaction, that he believed 
it already began to take effect ; for that a rigid dissenter who 
chanced to dine at his house on Christmas day had been ob- 
served to eat very plentifully of his plum porridge. 

After having dispatched all our country matters. Sir Roger 

I. Which excluded from office those not members of the Estalished Church. 



24 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

made several inquiries concerning the club, and particularly of 
his old antagonist, Sir Andrew Freeport. He asked me, with a 
kind of smile, whether Sir Andrew had not taken the advantage 
of his absence to vent among them some of his republican doc- 
trinj- but soon after, gathering up his countenance into a more 
than ordinary seriousness, "Tell me truly," says he, "don't you 
think Sir Andrew had a hand in the pope's procession?" ^ But 
without giving me time to answer him, "Well, well," says he, 
"I know you are a wary man, and do not care to talk of public 
matters. ' ' 

The knight then asked me if I had seen Prince Eugenie, and 
made me promise to get him a stand in some convenient place, 
where he might have a full sight of that extraordinary man, 
whose presence does so much honor to the British nation. Ho 
dwelt very long on the praises of this great general ; and I found 
that since I was with him in the country, he had drawn many 
observations together out of his reading in Baker's Chronic/e, and 
other authors, who always lie in his hall window, which very 
much redound to the honor of this prince. 

Having passed away the greatest part of the morning in hear- 
ing the knight's reflections, which were partly private and partly 
political, he asked me if I would smoke a pipe with him over a 
dish of coffee at Squire's-. As I love the old man, I take delight 
in complying with everything that is agreeable to him, and ac- 
cordingly waited on him to the coffee-house, where his venerable 
figure drew upon us the eyes of the whole room. He had no 
sooner seated himself at the upper end of the high table but he 
called for a clean pipe, a paper of tobacco, a dish of coffee, a 
wax candle, and the Supplement, with such an air of cheerful- 
ness and good humor that all the boys in the coffee-room (who 
seemed to take pleasure in serving him) were at once employed 
on his several errands ; insomuch that nobody else could come at 
a dish of tea, until the knight had got all his conveniences about 
him. 

X. SIR ROGER'S VISIT TO WESTMINSTER ABBEY 

My friend Sir Roger de Coverley told me the other night that 
he had been reading my paper upon Westminster Abbey, "in 
which," says he, "there are a great many ingenious fancies." 

1. It was for tnauy years the practice iu Loudon, ou the auuiversary of Queen 
IJlizabeth's accession, for a procession to parade through the principal streets, 
bearing an effigy of the pope, wliich was afterward burned. This year it had 
been the occasion of great political disturbance. 

2. A coffee-house frequented by the students of Gray's Inn. 



SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 25 

He told me, at the same time, that he observed I had promised 
another paper upon the tombs, and that he should be glad to go 
and see them with me, not having visited them since he had read 
history. I could not at first imagine how this came into the 
knight's head, till I recollected that he had been very busy all 
last summer upon Bakers' Chronicle, which he has quoted several 
times in his disputes with Sir Andrew Freeport since his last 
coming to town. Accordingly, I promised to call upon him the 
next morning, that we might go together to the Abbey. 

I found the knight under the butler's hands, who always shaves 
him. He was no sooner dressed, than he called for a glass of the 
Widow Trueby's water,' which he told me he always drank be- 
fore he went abroad. He recommended to me a dram of it at the 
same time, with so much heartiness that I could not forbear 
drinking it. As soon as I had got it down, I found it very un- 
palatable ; upon which the knight, observing that I had made 
several wry faces, told me that he knew I should not like it at 
first, but that it was the best thing in the world against the stone 
or gravel. 

I could have wished, indeed, that he had acquainted me with 
the virtues of it sooner ; but it was too late to complain, and I 
knew what he had done was out of good-will. Sir Roger told me 
further, that he looked upon it to be very good for a man while 
he staid in town, to keep off infection, and that he got together 
a quantity of it upon the first news of the sickness- being at 
Dantzic: when of a sudden, turning short to one of his servants, 
who stood behind him, he bid him call a hackney-coach, and take 
care it was an elderly man that drove it. 

He then resumed his discourse upon Mrs. Trueby's water, tell- 
ing me that the Widow Trueby was one who did more good than 
all the doctors and apothecaries in the county : that she distilled 
every poppy that grew within five miles of her ; that she dis- 
tributed her medicine gran's among all sorts of people ; to which 
the knight added, that she had a very great jointure, and that the 
whole country would fain have it a match between him and her; 
"and truly," says Sir Roger, "if I had not been engaged, per- 
haps I could not have done better." 

His discourse was broken off by his man's telling him he had 
called a coach. Upon our going to it, after having cast his eye 

1. "One of the innumerable 'strouo; waters' drunk, it is said (perhaps libel- 
ously) , chiefly by the fair sex, as au exhilarant; the excuses being the colic and 
the vapor.' " — Hhlls. 

2. The Plague. 



26 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

upon the wheels, he asked the coachman if his axle-tree was good. 
Upon the fellow's telling him he would warrant it, the knight 
turned to me, told me he looked like an honest man, and went in 
without further ceremony. 

We had not gone far, when Sir Roger, popping out his head, 
called the coachman down from his box, and upon presenting 
himself at the window, asked him if he smoked. As I was con- 
sidering what this would end in, he bid him stop by the way at 
any good tobacconist's, and take in a roll of their best Virginia. 
Nothing material happened in the remaining part of our journey, 
till we were set down at the west end of the Abbey. 

As we went up the body of the church, the knight pointed at 
the trophies upon one of the new monuments, and cried out: "A 
brave man, I warranthim !" Passing afterward by Sir Cloudesley 
Shovel, he flung his hand that way, and cried: "Sir Cloudesley 
Shovel !' a very gallant man !" As we stood before Busby's tomb, 
the knight uttered himself again after the same manner: "Dr. 
Busby !'- a great man ! he whipped my grandfather ; a very great 
man ! I should have gone to him myself, if I had not been a 
blockhead ; a very great man !" 

We were immediately conducted into the little chapel on the 
right hand. Sir Roger, planting himself at our historian's elbow, 
was very attentive to everything he said, particularly to the ac- 
count he gave us of the lord who had cutoff the king of Morocco's 
head. Among several other figures, he was very well pleased to 
see the statesman CeciP upon his knees; and concluding them all 
to be great men, was conducted to the figure which represents 
that martyr to good housewifery, who died by the prick of a 
needle.^ Upon our interpreter's telling us that she was a maid 
of honor to Queen Elizabeth, the knight was very inquisitive into 
her name and family; and after having regarded her finger for 
some time, "I wonder," says he, "that Sir Richard Baker has 
said nothing of her in his Chronicle.^' 

We were then conveyed to the two coronation chairs, where 
my old friend, after having heard that the stone underneath the 

1. A distinguished British admiral, who was commander-iu-chief in tlie reisn 
of Que(Mi Aiiue. Retiiriiiug from Gibraltar, his ship was lost on the Scilly Isles, 
and all on board perished. His body was afterward found and interred in West- 
minster Abbey, where a monument was erected to his memory. 

2. For fifty-five years head-master of Westminster School. 

3. L,ord Burleigh, prime minister to Queeu Elizabeth. 

4. This is a popular error, originatiiis: from the position ot the figure on the 
monument to Elizabeth, youngest daughter of I.ord John Russell (A. D. 1584). 



SIR ROGER DE COVERLLY 27 

most ancient of them, which was brought from Scotland, was 
called Jacob's pillar, sat himself down in the chair; and looking 
like the figure of an old Gothic king, asked our interpreter : 
"What authority they had to say that Jacob had ever been in 
Scotland?" The fellow, instead of returning him an answer, 
told him "that he hoped his honor would pay his forfeit." I 
could observe Sir Roger a little ruffled upon being thus tre- 
panned ; but our guide not insisting upon his demand, the knight 
soon recovered his good humor, and whispered in my ear that if 
Will Wimble were with us, and saw those two chairs, it would go 
hard but he would get a tobacco-stopper out of one or t'other of 
them. 

Sir Roger, in the next place, laid his hand upon Edward III. 's 
sword, and leaning upon the pommel of it, gave us the whole 
history of the Black Prince ; concluding, that in Sir Richard 
Baker's opinion, Edward III. was one of the greatest princes that 
ever sat upon the English throne. 

We were then shown Edward the Confessor's tomb ; upon 
which Sir Roger acquainted us, that he was the first that touched 
for the evil ; and afterward Henry IV. 's, upon which he shook 
his head, and told us there was fine reading of the casualties of 
that reign. 

Our conductor then pointed to that monument where there is 
the figure of one of our English kings without an head;^ and 
upon giving us to know that the head, which was of beaten silver, 
had been stole away several years since; "Some Whig, I'll war- 
rant you," says Sir Roger ; "you ought to lock up your kings 
better; they will carry off the body too, if you do not take care." 

The glorious names of Henry V. and Queen Elizabeth gave the 
knight great opportunities of shining, and of doing justice to Sir 
Richard Baker, "who, " as our knight observed with some sur- 
prise, "had a great many kings in him, whose monuments he 
had not seen in the Abbey." 

For my own part, I could not but be pleased to see the knight 
show such an honest passion for the glory of his country, and such 
a respectful gratitude to the memory of its princes. 

I must not omit that the benevolence of my good old friend, 
which flows out toward every one he converses with, made him 
very kind to our interpreter, whom he looked upon as an ex- 
traordinary man, for which reason he shook him by the hand at 
parting, telling him, that he should be very glad to see him at his 

I. The effigy of Henry V. 



28 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

lodgings in Norfolk Buildings, and talk over these matters with 
him more at leisure. 

XL SIR ROGER AT VAUXHALL 
As I was sitting in my chamber, and thinking on a subject for 
my next Spectator, I heard two or three irregular bounces at my 
landlady's door; and upon the opening of it, a loud cheerful 
voice inquiring whether the philosopher was at home. The child 
who went to the door answered very innocently that he did not 
lodge there. I immediately recollected that it was my good 
friend Sir Roger's voice, and that I had promised to go with him. 
on the water to Spring Garden, in case it proved a good evening. 
The knight put me in mind of my promise from the staircase ; 
but told me that if I was speculating, he would stay below till I 
had done. Upon my coming down, I found all the children of 
the family got about my old friend, and my landlady herself, who 
was a notable prating gossip, engaged in a conference with him ; 
being mightily pleased with his stroking her little boy on the 
head, and bidding him be a good child, and mind his book. 

We were no sooner come to the Temple stairs, but we were 
surrounded with a crowd of watermen, offering their respective 
services. Sir Roger, after having looked about him very atten- 
tively, spied one with a wooden leg, and immediately gave him 
orders to get his boat ready. As we were walking toward it, 
"You must know," says Sir Roger, "I never make use of any- 
body to row me that has not either lost a leg or an arm. I would 
rather bate him a few strokes of his oar than not employ an hon- 
est man that has been wounded in the queen's service. If I was 
a lord or bishop, and kept a barge, I would not put a fellow in 
my livery that had not a wooden leg." 

My old friend, after having seated himself, and trimmed the 
boat with his coachman, who being a very sober man always 
serves for ballast on these occasions, we made the best of our 
way for Foxhall. ^ Sir Roger obliged the waterman to give us the 
history of his right leg ; and hearing that he had left it at La 
Hogue, 2 with many particulars which passed in that glorious 
action, the knight, in the triumph of his heart, made several 
reflections on the greatness of the British nation ; as, that one 
Englishman could beat three Frenchmen ; that we could never be 
in danger of popery so long as we took care of our fleet ; that 

1. Afterward Vauxhall. 

2. On the northwest of France, off which the English gained a splendid vic- 
tory over the French fleet in 1692. 



SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 29 

the Thames was the noblest river in Europe ; that London Bridge 
was a greater piece of work than any of the seven wonders of 
the world; with many other honest prejudices which naturally 
cleave to the heart of a true Englishman. 

After some short pause, the old knight turning about his head 
twice or thrice, to take a survey of this great metropolis, bid me 
observe how thick the city was set with churches, and that there 
was scarce a single steeple on this side Temple Bar. "A most 
heathenish sight!" says Sir Roger; "there is no religion at this 
end of the town. The fifty new churches' will very much mend 
the prospect; but church-work is slow, church-work is slow!" 
I do not remember I have anywhere mentioned, in Sir Roger's 
character, his custom of saluting everybody that passes by him 
with a good-morrow, or a good-night. This the old man does out 
of the overflowings of his humanity, though at the same time it 
renders him so popular among all his country neighbors that it 
is thought to have gone a good way in making him once or twice 
knight of the shire. He caannot forbear this exercise of benev- 
olence even in town, when he meets with any one in his morn- 
ing or evening walk. It broke from him to several boats that 
passed by us upon the water but to the knight's great surprise, 
as he gave the good-night to two or three young fellows a little 
before our landing, one of them, instead of returning the civility, 
asked us what queer old put- we had in the boat, and whether 
he was not ashamed to go out at night at his years ? with a great 
deal of the like Thames ribaldry. Sir Roger seemed a little 
shocked at first ; but at length, assuming a face of magistracy, 
told us "that if he were a Middlesex justice, he would make 
such vagrants know that her majesty's subjects were no more to 
he abused by water than by land. ' ' 

We were now arrived at Spring Garden, which is exquisitely 
pleasant at this time of year. When I considered the fragrancy 
of the walks and bowers, with the choirs of birds that sung upon 
the trees, and the loose tribe of people that walked under their 
shades, I could not but look upon the place as a kind of Mahom- 
etan paradise. Sir Roger told me, it put him in mind of a little 
coppice by his house in the country, which his chaplain used to 
call an aviary of nightingales. "You must understand, " says 
the knight, "there is nothing in the world that pleases a man in 
love so much as your nightingale. Ah, Mr. Spectator! the many 

1. An Act had recently been passe<l cstablisliiug a number of new churches. 

2, Rustic, clown — an obsolete word. 



30 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

moonlight nights that I have walked by myself, and thought on 
the widow by the music of the nightingale !" He here fetched 
a deep sigh, and was falling into a fit of musing, when a mask, 
who came behind him, gave him a gentle tap upon the shoulder, 
and asked him if he would drink a bottle of mead with her ? But 
the knight, being startled at so unexpected familiarity, and dis- 
pleased to be interrupted in his thoughts of the widow, told her 
she was a wanton baggage, and bid her go about her business. 

We concluded our walk with a glass of Burton ale and a slice 
of hung beef. When we had done eating, ourselves, the knight 
called a waiter to him and bid him carry the remainder to the 
waterman that had but one leg. I perceived the fellow stared 
upon him at the oddness of the message, and was going to be 
saucy; upon which I ratified the knight's commands with a per- 
emptory look. 

As we were going out of the garden, my old friend thinking 
himself obliged, as a member of the quorum, to animadvert upon 
the morals of the place, told the mistress of the house, who sat 
at the bar, that he should be a better customer to her garden if 
there were more nightingales and fewer bad characters. 

Xn. DEATH OF SIR ROGER 

We last night received a piece of ill news at our club, which 
very sensibly afflicted every one of us. I question not but my 
readers themselves will be troubled at the hearing of it. To keep 
them no longer in suspense. Sir Roger de Coverley is dead. He 
departed this life at his house in the country, after a few weeks' 
sickness. Sir Andrew Freeport has a letter from one of his cor- 
respondents in those parts, that informs him the old man caught 
a cold at the county-sessions, as he was very warmly promoting- 
an address of his own penning, in which he succeeded according 
to his wishes. But this particular comes from a Whig justice of 
peace, who was always Sir Roger's enemy and antagonist. I have 
letters both from the chaplain and Captain Sentry, which mention 
nothing of it, but are filled with many particulars to the honor 
of the good old man. I have likewise a letter from the butler, 
who took so much care of me last summer when I was at the 
knight's house. Asjny friend the butler mentions, in the sim- 
plicity of his heart, several circumstances the others have passed 
over in silence, I shall give my reader a copy of his letter with- 
out any alteration or diminution. 



SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 31 

"Honored Sir — Know'ng that you was my old master's good 
friend, I could not forbeir sendincr you the melancholy '"^^w^ cl' 
his death, which has at<''icted the wnole country as v."£i! as his 

f)Oor servants, who love'' him, I may say, better tha.i we did our 
ives. I am afraid he caught his death at '.1 o last county-sessions, 
where he would go to see justice dors to a poor v/idow woman 
and her fatherless children, that had been wronged by a neigh- 
boring gentleman ; for you knov/, my good master was always 
the poor man's friend. Upon his coming home, the first com- 
plaint he made was, that he had lost his roast-beef stomach, not 
being able to touch a sirloin which was served up according to 
custom ; and you know he used to take great delight in it. From 
that time forward he gi e\w worse and worse, but still kept a good 
heart to the last. In''(?-:d, we were once in great hope of his 
recovery, upon a kinu meesage that was sent him from the widow 
lady whom he had made love to the forty last years of his life ; 
but this only proved a lightning before his death. He has be- 
queathed to this lady, as a token of his love, a great pearl neck- 
lace, and a couple of silver bracelets set with jewels, which be- 
longed to my good old lady his mother. He has bequeathed the 
fine white gelding that he used to ride a-hunting upon to his 
chaplain, because he thought he would be kind to him ; and has 
left you all his books. He has moreover bequeathed to the chap- 
lain a very pretty tenement, with good lands about it. It being 
a very cold day when he made his will, he left for mourning, to 
every man in the parish, a great frieze coat, and to every v/oman 
a black riding-hood. It was a moving sight to see him take leave 
of his poor servants, commending us all for our fidelity, v/hile 
we were not able to speak a word for weeping. As we most of 
us are grown gray-headed in our dear master's service, he has 
left us pensions and legacies, which we may live very comfort- 
ably upon the remaining part of our days. He has bequeathed 
a great deal more in charity, which is not yet come to my knowl- 
edge ; and it is peremptorily said in the parish that he has left 
money to build a steeple to the church ; for he Vv'as heard to say 
some time ago, that if he lived two years longer Coverley church 
should have a steeple to it. The chaplain tells everybody he 
made a very good end, and never speaks of him without tears. 
He was buried, according to his own directions, among the fam- 
ily of the Coverleys, on the left hand of his father Sir Arthur. 
The coffin was carried by six of his tenants, and the pall held 
up by six of the quorum. The whole parish followed the corpse 
with heavy hearts, and in tiieir mourning suits; the men in 
frieze, and the women in riding-hoods. Captain Sentry, my 
master's nephew, has taken possession of the Hall-house and the 
whole estate. When my old master saw him a little before his 
death, he shook him by the hand, and wished him joy of the 
estate which was falling to him, desiring him only to make a 
good use of it, and to pay the severallegacies and the gifts of 
charity, which he told him he had left as quit-rents upon the 
estate. The captain truly seems a courteous man, though he says 
but little. He makes much of those whom my master loved, and 
shows great kindness to the old house-dog that you know my poor 



SPP 5 1912 

32 SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY 

master was so fond of. It would have gone to your heart to have 
heard the moans the dumb creature made on the day of my mas- 
tar's death. He has never joyed himself since ; no more has any 
of us. It was the melancholiest day for the poor people that ever 
happened in Worcestershire. This is all from, honored sir, your 
most sorrowful servant, Edward Biscuit. 

P. S. — My master desired, some weeks before he died, that a 
book, which comes up to you by the carrier, should be given to 
Sir Andrew Freeport in his name." 

This letter, notwithstanding the poor butler's manner of writ- 
ing it, gave us such an idea of our good old friend, that upon the 
reading of it there was not a dry eye in the club. Sir Andrew 
opening the book, found it to be a collection of acts of parliament. 
There was in particular the Act of Uniformity, with some pas- 
sages in it marked by Sir Roger's own hand. Sir Andrew found 
that they related to two or three points which he had disputed 
with Sir Roger the last time he appeared at the Club. Sir Andrew, 
who would have been merry at such an incident on another occa- 
sion, at the sight of the old man's writing burst into tears, and 
put the book in his pocket. Captain Sentry informs me that the 
knight has left rings and mourning for every one in the Club. 



UtSAaaaam^ 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES — Continued 



History and Biography 

5 Story of Lincoln — Reiter 
56 luJian Children T sl\ss— B u s It 
79 A Little New England Viking — Faker 

81 Story of UeSoto- //a tjield 

82 Story of Daniel Boone — Reiter 

83 Story of Printing— i^/cCa*i? 

84 Story of David Crockett — Reiter 

85 Story of Patrick Witnxy— Little field 

86 American Inventors — I (Whitney and 

Fulton) — Paris 

87 American Inventors — II (Morse and l-',di- 

■f.o\\)— Paris 

88 American Naval Heroes (Jones, Perry, 

Farragnt; — Bush 

89 Fremont and Kit Carson— /j/t/rf 

17S Story of Lexington audBiniker Hill. 

182 Stor}' of Joan of Arc — McFee 
Literature 

90 Selections from Longfellow — I 

91 Story of Eugene Field — McCabe 

195 Night before Christmas and Other 
Christinas Poems and Stories. 

201 Alice's First Adventures in Wonder- 

land — Carroll 

202 Alice's Further Adventures in Wonder- 

land — Carioll 
207 Famous Artists II — Reyuolds--Murillo 
III Water Babies (Abridged) — Kingsley 
35 Goody Two-Shoes 
103 Stories from the Old Testament— .I/c/vt 

FIFTH YEAR 
Nature 

92 Animal Life in the Sea — McFce 

93 Story of Silk — Bi tnun 

94 Story of Sugar — Reiter 

96 What We Drink (Tea, Coffee and Cocoa) 
139 Peeps into Bird Nooks, II — McPee 

210 Snowdrops and Crocuses — Mann 

History and Biography 
16 Explorations of the Northwest 
80 Story of the Cabots— .l/</?; /rf^ 

97 Story of the Norsemen — Hanson 

98 Story of Nathan Hale— .1/fCai!'^ 

99 Story of JeiTerson — McCabe 

100 Story of B-\aut — McPee 

101 Story of Robert E. 1^".^— Me Ka n e 

105 Story of Canada — D(>i<e:las 

106 Story of Mexico — McCabe 

107 Story of Robert LouisSteveuson — Biis/i 
141 Story of Grant — McKane 

144 Story of Steam — McCabe 

145 Story of McKiuley — McBride 

179 Story of the Flag — Baker 

190 Story of Father Hennepin — McBride 

191 Story of LaSalle — McBride 

1S5 Story of the First Crusade— AiVarf 

217 Story of Florence Nightingale — McFee 

218 Story of Peter Cooper — McPee 
no Story of Hawthorne — McPee 
232 Story of Shakespeare 

Literature 

8 King of the Golden River — Ruskin 

9 The Golden Toucli — Ha-.etliorne 

108 History in Verse (Slicridau's Ride, In- 

dependence Bell, etc.) 

180 Story of Aladdin andof All Baba — Levis 

183 A Dog of Flanders— /?^ la Ramee 



1S4 The Nuruberg Stove — De la Ra:!ii-e 

186 Heroes from King Arthur — Giamcs 
104 Whittier's Poems. Selected. 

lc,9 Jackanapes — Eiuing 
200 Tlie Child of Urbino — De la Ramee 
208 Heroes of Asgard — Selections--A'£«ry 
212 Stories from Robin Hood — Bush 
234 Poems Worth Knowing — Book II -Inter- 
mediate 

SIXTH YEAR 
Nature 
109 Gifts of tlie Forest (Rubber, Cinchona, 

Resin, ci.c.)—McFce 
Geography 

114 Great European Cities — I (London and 

Varis)— Bush 

115 Great European Cities— II (Rome and 

Berliui— .S«i7i 

168 Great European Cities-Ill (St. Peters- 
burg and Constaniiuople) — Bush 

History and Biography 

116 Old English Heroes (Alfred, Richard the 

Lion-IIeaited, The Black Prince) 

117 Later English Heroes (Cromwell, Well- 

ington, Gladstone) — Bush 
160 Heroes of the Revolution — Tristram 
163 Stories of Courage — Bush 

187 Lives of Webster and Clay — Tiist ram 

158 Story of Napoleon— /?«i A 

159 Stories of Heroism — Bush 

197 Storj' of Lafa5'ette— /?«.vA 

198 Story of Roger Williams — Leightou 
2cg Lewis and Clark Expedition- /y^vwd'ri;; 
219 Story of Iowa— J/r/"cV' 

224 Story of William Tell — iJallork 
Literature 

10 The Snow Image — Hawthorne 

11 Rip Van Winkle — Ifz'ing 

12 Legend of Sleepy Hollow — Iriiing 
22 Rab and His Friends — Bio'vn 

24 Three Golden Apjiles — Hazvthorne 

25 The Miraculous I'itcher — Hawthorne 

26 The Minotaur — Hazvthorne 

119 Bryant's Thanatopsis and Other Poems 

120 Selections from I^ongfellow— II 

121 Selections from Holmes 

122 The Pied Piper of Hamelin — Browning 
i6i The Great Carbuncle, Mr. Higgin- 

botham's Catastrophe, Suowflakes — 
Hawthorne 
IGi The P}-gmies — Hawthorne 

222 Kingsiey's Gi-eek Heroes — Pait I. The 

Story of Perseus 

223 Kingsle5''s Greek Heroes — Part II. The 

Story of Theseus 

225 Tennyson's Poems — For various grades 
229 Responsive Bible Readings — Zeller 

SEVENTH YEAR 
Literature 

13 Courtslio of Miles Standish 

14 Evangeiiae — Longfellow 

15 Snow Bcuud — VVhittier 

20 The Great Stone Face — Hawthorne 

123 Selections from Wordswortli 

124 Selections from Slielley and Keats 

125 Selections from Mercliant ot Veii'ce 
147 Story of King Arthur as tolil by Tennj- 

Son—Hallock 

Continued on next page 



INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES-Coniinued 



149 Man Without a Country, The — ffale 

192 Story of Jeau Valjean. ' 

193 Selections from the Sketch Book. 
196 The Gray Champion — Hawthorne 
213 Poems of Thomas Moore — Selected 

216 I,amb's Tales from Shakespeare— Select- 
ed 

231 The Oregon Trail(Condensed from Park- 
niau) 

238 lyamb's Adventures of Ulysses — Part I 

239 Lamb's Adventures of Uiysses— Part II 

EIQHTH YEAR 
Literature 

17 Enoch Arden — Tennyson 

18 Vision of Sir Launfal — Lowell 

19 Cotter'sSaturday Night— i??<»-wj 
23 Tlie Deserted Village — Goldsmith 

126 Rime of the Ancient Mariner 

127 Gray's Elegy and Other Poems 

128 Speeches of Lincoln 

129 Selections from Julius Csesar 

130 Selections from Henry the Eighth 

131 Selections fro)n Macbeth 



142 Scott's Lady of the Lake— Canto I 

154 Scott's Lady of the Lake — Canto II 

143 Building of the Ship and Other Poems — 
Lonsfellow 

148 Horatius, Ivry, The KxmsiA2i—Macaulay 

150 Bunker Hill Address — Selections from 
the Adams and Jefferson Oration — 
Webster 

151 Gold Bug, The— /"o^ 
153 Prisoner of ChiUon and Other Poems— 

Byron 

155 Rhoecus and Other Voems- -Loivell 

156 Edgar Allan Poe — Biography and Se- 
lected Poems — Link 

15S Wasliiugtou's Farewell Address and 
Other Papers 

169 Abram Joseph Rj'an — Biography and 
Selected Poems — Smitii 

170 PaulH. Hayne — Biography and Selected 
Poe:ns — Link 

215 Life of Samuel Johnson — Macaitlay 
231 Sir Roger de Coverly Papers — ^lrf(/z.sOH 
237 Lay of the Last Minstrel — Scott. Intro- 
duction and Canto I 

Price 5 Cents Each. Postage, 1 Cent per copy extra. Order by Number. 

Twelve or more copies sent prepaid at 00 cents per dozen or $5.00 per hundred. 



Annotated Classics and Supplementary Readers 

In addition to the Five Cent books given above the Instructor Series includes the 
following titles. Most of these are carefully edited by capable teachers of English, 
with 111 troduction, Notes and Outlines for Study, as noted. They are thoroughly 
adapted for class use and study as needed in varions grades. Prices^after each book. 

250 Evangeline. Longfellow. With bio- 
graphical sketch, historical introduc- 
tion, oral and written exercises and 
notes JOc 

251 Courtship of Miles 5tandish. Longfel- 
low. With Introduction and Notes. lOc 

252 Vision of Sir Launfal. Lowell. Biograph- 
ical sketch, introduction, notes, ques- 
tions and outlines fur study 10c 

253 Enocli Arden. Tennysuu. Biographi- 
cal sketch, introducl ;ou, explanatory 
notes, outlines for study and questions 

10c 



254 Great Stone Face. Hawthorne. Bio- 
graphical sketch, int-o<lucl ion, notes, 
questions and outlines for study. . . . lOc 

354 Cricket on the Hearlh. Chas. bickens. 
Complete ICc 

255 Bro>vn.i)g's Poe- s. Selected poems 
with notes and outlines tor st 'idy. . . 10c 

256 Wordsworth's Poems. Seiecttd p"eins 
with introduction, notes and outlines 
for study ... . 1 Oc 

257 Soh-sb f nd Rustum. Aruo d. With in- 
troduction, notes and outlines for 
study 10c 

258 'I he Children's P -et. K s'udy of Long- 
fellow's poetry for children of the pri- 



mary grades, with explanations, lan- 
guage exercises, outlines, written and 
oral work, with selected poeins. By 
Lillie Paris, Ohio Teachers College, 
Athens, Ohio lOc 

259 A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens. 
Conip'ete lOc 

260 F'uniiliar Legends. Inez N. McFee. A 
book of old tales retold for young 
people 10c 

261 io.ne Water Birds. Inez N. McFee. 
Description, habits, and stories of, for 
Fourth to Sixth grades 10c 

350 Hiawatha. Longfellow. With intro- 
duction and notes 15c 

352 Milton's riinor Poems. Edited by Cy- 
rus Laurou Hooper. Biographical 
sketch and introduction, witli explana- 
tory notes and questions forstudy; criti- 
cal comments and pronouncing vocab- 
ularj' of proper names 1 5c 

353 Silas Marner. Elot. Biographical 
sketch, numerous notes, questions for 
study, critical comments ami bibliog- 
raphy, by Hiram R. Wilson, State 
NoMual College, Athens, O. 230 pages. 

Paper 20c 

In cloth binding 30c 



Published Jointly by 



F. Ik. OVSiEN CO. DansvUle, N. Y. 
HALL & n/lcCREARY, Chicago, ill. 



LIBRARY OF CUNUHbbb 



014 157 178 3 ^ 



